Adelaide: Jasprit Bumrah bowled a brilliant opening spell to send back Australia’s openers, leaving the hosts tottering at 35 for 2 after their pacers dismissed India for 244 during an eventful first session of the opening Day/Night Test’s second day here.
Joe Burns (8 off 41 balls) and Matthew Wade (8 off 51 balls) were prepared to play the tough waiting game till Bumrah (8-5-8-2) bowled fast and full to trap both of them leg before as India ended on the right side of ‘Umpires Call’ on both occasions.
Umesh Yadav (6-4-6-0) and Mohammed Shami (9-0-19-0) also kept things tight although they were a little more on the shorter side during the session compared to Bumrah, who reaped dividends for bowling fuller deliveries.
Marnus Labuschagne (16 batting, 15 balls) lived a charmed life when Wriddhiman Saha, touted as the best wicket-keeper in world, missed a tough but gettable caught behind off Bumrah.
Labuschagne was insanely lucky when Bumrah dropped a dolly at fine leg after the batsman had mis-timed a pull shot off Shami.
He went into the break with Steve Smith (1 batting, 7 balls) for company.
The Australian openers were ready to stay put and wait but Bumrah angled a fuller one into Wade, which rapped him on the pads while he was trying to whip it to mid-wicket.
Burns, the man going through a bad patch, also did all the hard work before Bumrah fired one fast and full into the block-hole and got the decision in his favour.
At the start of the day, India’s tail-enders contributed precious little as the first innings folded in just 93.1 overs.
Mitchell Starc (4/53 in 21 overs) and Pat Cummins (3/48 in 21.1 overs) dismissed the last four batsmen for an addition of only 11 runs to the overnight score.
In fact, India lost seven wickets for 56 runs starting with skipper Virat Kohli’s run-out caused by a poor call from vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane.
Friday, Ravichandran Ashwin (15) got one to rear up from length as Cummins got his second wicket and India’s seventh in the first over of the day.
Saha (9) also didn’t trouble the scorers, getting out on his overnight tally while chasing a wide delivery from Starc.
Umesh Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah hit a boundary each but that was just tail-enders’ bravado as the innings folded in just 25 balls on the second day.
If one goes by how the pink ball matches at Adelaide have panned out, India have scored at least 75 runs less than what should have been a fighting first innings total.
In the end, Kohli’s dismissal might just cost them dearly.
PTI